Month:
January 2015

If I die child-less, I think my biggest accomplishment will be having had a beautiful house.

Back when we bought this home, the Mid-Century Modern trend was still hot (let’s be honest, it always is) and here we had this beautiful MCM home (I never thought we’d have one!). So I thought, we have to furnish it correctly. I wanted it to be bold and colorful! And I wanted an Eames chair and a George Nelson clock! Atomic! Kitsch! You can see the direction we were headed with this initial living room showcase I did back when I started the blog.
I was thinking that every room would have its own color motif. The kitchen was to be green (which I have scaled back over time), and the living room was going to be teal, yellow an orange. Fine MCM color schemes. Try as I might though, I didn’t feel the colorful, quasi-kitschiness in my bones. I couldn’t commit my house to a style that my heart wasn’t in. There are still some remnants of that old style (the rug in the living room, for example) but overall, we’ve remained neutral.

I didn’t reject Mid-Century Modern though, which I’m happy about. When I first latched onto it about 6ish years ago, I thought it looked great, but also didn’t dream I’d ever have a Mid Century House with Mid Century furnishings. It’s really a big commitment, considering the prices on some key furniture pieces. We’ve managed, however, through IKEA, craigslist and luck. Take the above: Our dining room (and partial kitchen). Finding the right credenza was a hard-fought battle, but we ended up with something affordable and incredibly stylish (and unexpected). The Danish Modern dining set was a CL score that Alan found for *$300!*. The beautiful ceiling light came with the house! And I never dreamed that Alan, who, when we met, liked dark colored walls and overstuffed furniture, would be the one hunting for MCM dining sets, or saying we should buy the credenza. I can see how this style of decorating could be off-putting for some. There’s no actual color to be found anywhere in this picture. But he really came around and we see every new stylistic touch in the house as a major success.

I digress. While I would love to show off our dining room(again), this is more about a crafty project we did over the weekend, that’s so easy you’d be crazy not to at least try it out.

$20 WALL ART DIY

Here’s the dining room just on Saturday (and the cat! Her tongue!). I had a few cheaply framed pieces of art (a drawing an Icelandic Redditor sent me a few years ago, and a picture I took Up North last summer), and had plans to have more of a gallery wall, but last weekend I mentioned that I’d just learned about Engineer Prints to Alan, and we thought about where we could put a giant photo in the house, and this seemed like the best place.

Engineer prints are really more for like, blueprints and stuff, but if you’re savvy, you can print a massive photograph you took yourself for about $5. Find an office supply store that also does printing (In my case, Staples does good work) and order online to pick up in-store. Make your photo the right size (mine is 3×4′) and convert to grayscale dot pattern. That’s all you need to do. (You can print anything at any size if it’s dot pattern. Protip).I used a photo I took last summer at the cabin ‘cuz trees are nice.To make this as cheap as possible, we’re using the same un-framing technique I mentioned in my post about my office. The binder clips are a little inelegant and not necessarily in a charming way. We may screw the wood together in the future and hang it by a string, which would be inelegant in a charming way.
Seriously, $300 for this whole thing.
My Iceland Reddit drawing got displaced, so I took down the Keep Calm poster (which looked shabby anyway, despite how much I love it). It really brings that area together! (Also, note our charming new radio which is this brand . It’s very stylish and has a surprisingly powerful speaker. A budget version for the Tivoli admirers). The wooden frame holding the Keep Calm poster then became host to our Art Crank poster on the other side of the room:*Carefully framed picture to include The Smiths vinyl*
I’m sharing this with you lovely people, even though it’s a nifty secret, because I saw PhotoJojo trying to sell these things for $25. And it takes a WEEK to get to you. Pay a little extra at Staples and pick it up the same day. Boom. You’re welcome.

Like this:

Weather wise it’s been a mild week. No base layer to deal with, no arms clamped at my side when I get into the car at the end of the day. I love the cold, but this is nice. I feel like doing some fun projects this weekend. I wanna try to ombre a t-shirt and/or brine a t-shirt I got for Christmas, that I love, but is really stiff and not soft. It needs to be soft, like kitties!

Tonight I’m going to fry up some Tilapia after hitting the gym, then watch the new Comedy Bang Bang and probably take it easy because that cold that I was cured of a week ago seems to be creeping back. That’s stupid.

Just a little over a week until I drink again. That first beer is going to be so, so good.

Like this:

I might be a little extra #blessed that I have such a forgiving work schedule. I woke up today at 8:30. My shift doesn’t *really* start until 11, but I was still late. Why? Because I like to drink a pot of coffee and dick around on the internet. Duh. With my new healthy thing though, lately I have to factor a whole new thing: Breakfast.

I love breakfast but I almost never had any time for it, because in my old life (last month) I would stay in bed as long as possible before quickly showering, probably grabbing a coffee at Starbucks, rolling into work a little late. It happens. In my new-and-improved life, I’m drinking coffee, hanging out in my office, and EATING FOOD. And not just any food. NUTRITIOUS FOOD. This meal pictured about is, admittedly, much more nutrient-packed than my usual breakfast of honey yogurt and almond butter toast (also with honey. Almond butter on its own is GROSS). I was in a rush but still managed to make this: Scrambled eggs (with a little milk and a lot of black pepper), a berry smoothie (Almond milk + greek yogurt + strawberries + banana + frozen blueberries. My kale went bad :( ), and I rescued a browning avocado half in the fridge and scraped it on a piece of rye toast (rye toast is weird btw!) Then, tabasco. Because I dig the spicy things in life.

Like this:

Last week I started off strong by hitting the gym on Monday. Then Tuesday, I got hit with a nasty cold. Chills, aches, squeaky cough, and all around fatigue. I was out of commission for 4 solid days of would-be working out. By the weekend I was on the up and up, and by yesterday I was good as new (also explains the lack of blogging). This was terrible for gym momentum, but at least I had no problem not drinking. So far I’ve made leaps and bounds more progress on the ‘lifestyle changes’ than when I tried a year ago. I’m eating actual real breakfast every day, with actual real nutrients and wholesome, nutritious foods! Feels good to keep at it, and it’s not a serious struggle because it’s all in moderation. I’m not binging on snack food constantly BUT I’m also not denying myself any little treats if I so desire them (I’ve allowed myself two pops. A can of coke over a week ago, and a bottle of pepsi on Sunday. And that feels like just enough.) “Everything in Moderation” really is the key here. I don’t think I ever understood the weight of that mantra until now.

I use the gym in my building, which is nice because it’s convenient, and extremely cheap. We’re moving buildings at the end of March, when the gym membership will skyrocket. It’ll probably become more practical to sign up at a real gym, and there happens to be an LA Fitness down the street from our house with all the bells and whistles (Sauna! Hot Tub! JUICE BAR!). I want to look my best for these Training Try-Hards, so I’ve envisioned for myself a rad workout ensemble that is likely to subvert the paradigm furreal.

A Hoodie is good for exercise. It gets your sweatin’. This particular hoodie (from ol’ reliable Old Navy) is really nice material. It’s like, compression fleece. I have it, and it’s very soft, and doesn’t pill, and is just the right fit. When it’s a teensy bit warmer out, it’ll be perfect for jogging outside. Moisture *and* odor wicking too.

A Vest is really more of an outdoor thing too, but I can picture in the winter months throwing it on over the hoodie as I’m walking back to my car. No need to bundle all the way up while I’m cooling down. Plus, this one’s on sale guys! And, c’mon, get that brand recognition.

A Tank Top that will totally cause some gym bros to rethink their entire machismo world view. Plus, tank tops help your body breathe, and this one happens to be rad as hell.

AND… Rad printed leggings. This ones above are these which are sadly no longer available, but you can find all kinds of super cool printed leggings like THESE Lord of the Rings themed ones. And you know what, if you’re looking for some “real” workout leggings, and maybe you’re a bit of a health goth, these look pretty cool.

A couple last things: Hydrate often, and get Netflix on your phone so you can watch 30 Rock on the elliptical. It makes the time fly by. ;)

Like this:

I’ve wanted to show off my little home office for a really long time. I just had to keep tweaking the space, because it has to be *perfect*. It’s my little autonomous space. I get to make it look however I want. Even to the point where I’ve been obsessing over clean, minimal workspaces on Pinterest forever now and feeling disappointed in mine by comparison. But then I realized that I’m really lucky to even have a home office. It’s not like I do a ton of work from home (I do enough). But this space is my little happy space. The only thing that sucks about it are the cheap IKEA DIY desks, which have cheap legs that wobble — a lot. I can make them more flush withe the floors, but the *floors* are uneven. Anyway. Look how terrible that photo is up there. Poor composition all around. It’s because I don’t have a super wide angle lens. And because I didn’t try very hard tbh.Central control. The red lamp.. I love, don’t get me wrong. But it was bought at a time when red accents were all the rage. Black + White + Red = Totally Swiss design, right? It was a time when I was purely a black and white kind of person, but *just* black and white was too extreme. Now, I’m like, screw that. ONLY Black & White. I have my eye on this IKEA lamp, which has a button on the base, which is honestly enough for me. The red lamp has a switch down on the cord that I have to fish out every night. UGH, right? It’s a worklamp from West Elm and I’m essentially looking to trade down. (I can’t believe I found so much to say about a lamp!)
I used to have the ubiquitous flip clock screensaver until one day it just stopped working on my mac. I’m now using this even lovelier, more minimalist iteration.
See? RED ACCENTS. Also, I AM A DESIGNER. Here’s a big type poster.
My “music corner”, by default. Alan got me the incredible electric piano for Christmas, which I’ve been dying for for years. After I moved out of my parents’ house I’ve been without a piano to play, and it really hurt. Like, physically hurt me sometime to not be able to play. That guitar? It’s broken. I need to get it fixed. But it looks *super* cool like that in the corner, doesn’t it? So casual.
The Morrissey poster is my *favorite* thing. I lifted this framing technique directly from Door Sixteen.
More Morrissey, and a little typographic letterpress poster. I got it for being an early backer on this great Kickstarter campaign.
The little boxes are from Ikea, natch. The coaster is a wood slab from Michaels.
Thank god for these little wooden boxes. There’s so much crap that you can’t see because of it. Also, how cute is the notepad? IKEA. And the tape dispenser? Also IKEA. The cross stitch was made by my wonderful friend Katrin as a wedding present (she was also my personal attendant I mean HOW RAD).
The sad part is that as soon as we have our second kid this isn’t my space anymore. :( / :)